Cannot SSH into go daddy server

I'm going slowly mad. I cannot ssh into two godaddy servers. I'm trying with root (which is enabled) and also with individual user accounts which are in the wheel group and have full shell access. The root password and user passwords are being accepted in WHM no problem so I know they are good.

The faillog file just says NULL NULL etc

Godaddy's legendary support is as much use as a chocolate teapot they say they can login fine.

Staff Member

Unfortunately, there is not much more you can check for without root access via SSH. You will need to consult with your hosting provider to have them check why "root" access via SSH is not working properly.

# This is the sshd server system-wide configuration file. See
# sshd_config(5) for more information.

# This sshd was compiled with PATH=/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin

# The strategy used for options in the default sshd_config shipped with
# OpenSSH is to specify options with their default value where
# possible, but leave them commented. Uncommented options change a
# default value.

# rhosts authentication should not be used
#RhostsAuthentication no
# Don't read the user's ~/.rhosts and ~/.shosts files
#IgnoreRhosts yes
# For this to work you will also need host keys in /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts
#RhostsRSAAuthentication no
# similar for protocol version 2
#HostbasedAuthentication no
# Change to yes if you don't trust ~/.ssh/known_hosts for
# RhostsRSAAuthentication and HostbasedAuthentication
#IgnoreUserKnownHosts no

Staff Member

What precisely is deny users and deny groups? Please provide the file that was listing your IP.

Now, since I believe you might mean csf.deny file at /etc/csf location. If you do mean CSF did it, this wouldn't be a cPanel product but that of another company (ConfigServer Security & Firewall). For entries added to /etc/csf/csf.deny, CSF logs to /var/log/lfd.log for LFD brute force detection entries. You should be able to find your IP in that file or in the archive of it if the log has been archived:

GoDaddy's Virtual Dedicated server (and maybe some of there others) doesn't allow you to connect as "root". I kept getting "access denied." Instead of using root to connect via SSH, you must use cPanel to create another user, then add that user to the "manage wheel" so that the new user will have su access. Then connect using SSH client and new username.